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Our schoolchildren are not the only ones with report cards on their progress this fall. The government of Canada has just received a report card from the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child on how it is fulfilling its commitments to protect children’s rights. Our country’s record is mixed and Canada is not keeping up with gains being made in other industrialized countries.

By accepting the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1991, Canada accepted a duty to realize the rights of its seven million children. The UN committee reviewed Canada’s record last September and issued a report card (in the form of concluding observations) last week.

The results of this report card should come as no surprise to those of us in Canada.

While recognizing progress since Canada’s last review in 2003, including the strengthening of laws to protect children from sexual exploitation and the provision of new programs and services, the UN committee highlighted the importance of improving governance processes for children, such as better co-ordination of federal and provincial/territorial laws and services, and monitoring how governments’ efforts are actually making a difference in their health, education, protection and other outcomes. The lack of such co-ordination has resulted in “fragmentation and inconsistencies in the implementation of child rights” across all jurisdictions.

The UN committee’s recommendations addressed concerns on a broad range of conditions affecting how children grow up in Canada, such as: the lack of progress in reducing Canada’s child poverty rate; the overrepresentation of aboriginal and African Canadian children in the child welfare and youth criminal justice systems; the lack of full or equitable protection extended to children when they work; and the evolution of new challenges like mental illness and unhealthy weight without adequate responses.

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And perhaps most noteworthy, where a child lives should not determine how a child can realize his/her rights. As the committee remarked, “Children in similar situations” should not be “subject to disparities in the fulfilment of their rights depending on the province or territory they reside in.”

While the primary duty to implement children’s rights in Canada rests with the federal government, all of us have a role to play in improving our government’s grades for the benefit of all children and young people living in this affluent country.

Simple and achievable steps identified by the UN committee include:

• Establishing an independent national children’s ombudsman.

• Finding “the appropriate constitutional path” to support a comprehensive legal framework which fully incorporates the provisions of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

• Screening new laws, policies and significant budget decisions for their potential impact on children.

• Establishing “a budgeting process which adequately takes into account children’s needs at the national, provincial and territorial levels, with clear allocations to children in the relevant sectors and agencies, specific indicators and a tracking system.”

It is incumbent on all of us to give this review process a higher priority and not wait another five years or so before entering into a serious dialogue concerning what Canada has done — or should do — in relation to these concluding observations. The dialogues on the implementation of children’s rights should not only be taking place in meeting rooms in Geneva, but also here in Canada in our family homes, schools, work places and government offices, as well as in federal parliament and provincial and territorial legislatures.

On a positive note, there are opportunities to chart a new course and for government, civil society and young people to work together on some specific, feasible and measurable priorities now that the UN committee has released its “concluding observations.” One such approach is for the federal government, in conjunction with the provinces and territories, to create a work plan that addresses the concerns and recommendations set out in the concluding observations.

Part of that work plan could encompass creating expert and experiential working groups (with members of government, civil society and young people) to take on responsibility for analyzing particular topics or themes identified by the UN committee, and to develop actions and strategies in response to the recommendations directed to Canada in those concluding observations. The federal government and the provincial and territorial governments could then release annual reports on the progressive implementation of these thematic recommendations in their respective jurisdictions.

If we all accept this challenge to invest in our children, Canada is more likely to score better grades at the time of its next review in Geneva. Only by working together, with all levels of government across all jurisdictions, can we improve the lives of our children and youth in a consistent, equitable and robust manner.

Marv Bernstein is chief advocacy adviser for UNICEF Canada and a former children’s advocate for Saskatchewan.

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